Faculty Artists Take Center Stage in Annual Exhibit

Northfield Mount Hermon puts its visual arts teachers in the spotlight this month with the annual NMH Faculty Art Exhibit. “Shop Rats: Work by Visual Arts Faculty” opened Feb. 11 in The Gallery at the Rhodes Arts Center. It will remain on display until NMH’s spring break begins March 7, with an opening reception Friday, Feb. 13, at 6:30 pm in The Gallery.

This year’s faculty show features work from all six visual arts teachers in a wide variety of media, including ceramics, wood-burning, oil paintings, prints, and photography. Each piece provides students with a chance to see work produced by the hands that guide their own in the classroom.

“This year’s exhibit is kind of different,” said Jamie Rourke, who chairs the visual arts department. “You're seeing new work by returning faculty in relation to work by new faculty members. You have all these different dynamics at play.”

“It demonstrates that artistic growth does not end when the class is over,” said photography teacher Coke Whitworth. “When students see us exhibiting, revising, and taking creative risks, they witness firsthand the vulnerability and dedication we ask of them.”

The exhibit is also a chance for newer faculty members to introduce themselves as an artist to the campus community, said Clara Cruz, who teaches painting. Cruz’s submissions include oil paintings from a previous exhibit at the Fragment Gallery in New York City, where she lived prior to coming to NMH.

“My work can get pretty weird, from sound pieces and bits of broken concrete to more traditional portraiture,” Cruz said. “Deciding what to show always feels like a bit of a performance. There are so many different angles of my work; how am I choosing to share myself with others?”

Whitworth selected work from a long-term project focused on his hometown in the mountains of North Carolina, along with a few collage pieces.

“I think the reason I chose this work is because the ‘process’ still feels very much alive and active to me, meaning I’m still working through some of the questions I had from the beginning as well as some questions that have come up along the way,” he said.

Graphic design teacher David DiRocco, the newest member of the department, offered up a mixture of pencil figures and pyrography inspired by nature, including a commissioned piece using bone as a canvas for heat engraving.

“I've never really had an opportunity to put this type of my work on display,” DiRocco said. “Learning different woods and different techniques has been really fun. With the bone-burning, you get different tones that are so warm, almost kind of a burnt sienna that go into black. It’s a blast.”

Ceramics teacher Mona Seno created a series of porcelain pottery that captures some of the feelings evoked by the winter season.

“This series of sculptural functional pottery reflects what I love about winter,” said Seno. “The quiet solitude and peacefulness of a snowy landscape, the coziness of being indoors, and enjoying warmth in the midst of the cold.”

Steve Allison produced a series of prints meditating on the implications of artificial intelligence and technofascism for the creative spirit, channeled through variations on the words folk musician Woody Guthrie famously wrote on his guitar: “This machine kills fascists.”

“Inspired by the defiant spirit of Woody Guthrie, this print series investigates what it means to be human in an increasingly automated world,” Allison said. “What do we gain, and, more important, what do we lose when our sense of self is mediated by a machine?”

Rourke gives viewers an inside look at his creative process through figurative clay work, drawings, collages, and maquettes that demonstrate the layers of dynamic thought and movement that go into the act of creation.

“I'm really mindful of how things are shifting and changing in a lot of parts of life that used to be foundational and consistent,” he said. “I think a lot about the things we're focusing on, what we're feeling, and how our lives are moving in different ways or at different paces.”

Rourke said the pieces on display reflect the dichotomy between the solitary, concentrated state of creating, “when hours pass like minutes, and it’s almost like prayer” and “the other times when the work is more physical and the energy is different.

“The stuff that I have on display here, it's almost like they're different parts of my creative self that represent the full spectrum of what that creative practice feels like and how it plays out,” he said.

The diverse display of technique, creativity, and finesse in the exhibit provides inspiration for students, said Arabella Chong ’27, while also offering insights into their teachers’ passions.

“Our teachers are the most selfless people I know. They spend so much time teaching kids the skills they've learned,” said Chong. “It's highly important to have a faculty show so the students at NMH can see what high-quality, professional work looks like but also so they can see another dimension of their teacher that they wouldn’t have known otherwise.”

Exhibits like this also provide a place for artists to congregate and share ideas, Chong said. “Visual art can be a really isolating journey, sometimes sitting alone in the studio for hours. The importance of having a show is that people can come together to admire and appreciate the long hours that the artists put into their work.”

Whitworth said seeing his colleagues’ work helps create a sort of “positive accountability” for him in his own craft. “That shared creative energy is contagious: It pushes me to experiment, to continue to refine ideas, and to continue developing projects that often get postponed amid the busyness of boarding school life.

“Ultimately, the faculty art show affirms that we are a community of practicing artists who teach, not just teachers who once practiced art.”

— Max Hunt

“Shop Rats: Work by Visual Arts Faculty,” remains open through Friday, March 6. An opening reception featuring the artists will be held Friday, Feb. 13 from 6:30 to 8 pm at The Gallery.

Off-campus visitors are welcome to attend the reception and can email mseno@nmhschool.org to arrange a visit during Gallery hours.

Photos courtesy of Mona Seno and the artists.